I eat out. A lot.

Planter’s House – St. Louis, MO

What to wear: Your too bothered to really dress hipster near a college campus best.

Guilt Element: LOL What budget?

Soundtrack: St. Louis’ own Angela Winbush – “Angel”

I was in St. Louis on a personal trip and spent the day at a nearby cafe that boasted gooey butter cake. That is a different post for a different time. Planter’s House attracted me because of their amazing bourbon list. I picked it because it seemed to have some of the most INTERESTING dishes in a mile radius and was open until 11pm. Still engrossed in my laptop around the corner I peeped the menu online and headed over around 8pm on a Sunday evening.

The dark wood and leather seats made the space both comfortable and modern. In this image the author is thinking about how she is in a restaurant called the PLANTER’S HOUSE and she might be the only Black person here.

I reallllly wanted to get Bourbon and for sure this post would be much more interesting if I had it, but… restraint. I needed to drive 12 miles in the winter night and this place is totally new to me. Don’t drink and drive kids. But they also have mezcal so…

The uhm… liquid refreshment options left more room in my imaginary on the spot created budget to get an appetizer and main course and court the idea of desert. (The bourbon I had my eye on cost more than all three) so I got the Harissa Chickpeas which reminded me that I absolutely love dried chickpeas and hadn’t made them for myself in a while. Seasoning these little bites means a ton of sodium unfortunately.

I smashed these suckers rather quickly. The harissa flavor was exquisite and had just enough kick to give the chickpeas ample savory goodness. They made it less salty than I make at home with garam masala spices which was a revelation. The crunch outside allows for you to hold them in your hand but they are soft in the middle as dry chickpeas should be. No one should lose teeth to find this happiness.

For my main course I got the Mac and cheese with fried kale. I generally don’t trust restaurants to make my mac and cheese. I’m pretty strict about what counts as edible mac and cheese and the purist in me is disappointed. Maybe if they called it something else?

All shade and purism aside this pasta and cheese dish was pretty good. Elbow macaroni shells with goat cheese and pecorino. The goat cheese is presented as a center sliver which I am sure that I was supposed to mix in myself but I mean…. not enough for my cheesy greedy self so I ate it with the few bits of Mac underneath. Pecorino was throughout though not enough and the fried kale is indeed fried kale and had me in the mind of nori in the way that it was scattered on top of the dish. That would have been more flavorful really. I suppose it was there to add a different kind of crunch. Texturally, fantastic idea. I’m generally not here to hate. Try it. Don’t say that I didn’t tell you what was up. Waste of lactaid TBH.

I didn’t get dessert because the only non-cooked fruit option had peanuts.*

*I guess I should admit it now. Wow… it’s sooner than I thought it would be.

Um.

I don’t like cooked fruit deserts. Most of them anyway. There are a few exceptions like bananas royal. It’s a texture thing and I try, really I do.

Yes, this includes peach cobbler.

Anyway, this isn’t the time for this judgement of my not-very-adult dessert palette.